Trump’s family church explains why he refuses to accept failure

Hours after Republican Roy Moore lost the Senate election to Doug Jones, President Trump tweeted “I was right” despite endorsing Moore. The president explained that he originally backed Luther Strange because he knew Roy Moore could not win the General Election.

Trump’s ability to find a silver lining in the face of defeat could be attributed to his family’s church. Norman Vincent Peale, minister of the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan and author of best-seller “The Power of Positive Thinking” had a significant influence on the Trump family, says family biographer Gwenda Blair, author of “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate.”

Fred Trump and his wife Mary attended Marble Collegiate Church, Donald and his two sisters were married there, and both of Donald’s parents’ funerals were held in the church.

In “The Power of Positive Thinking” Peale says, “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture … Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.”

Blair says this is exactly what Donald Trump does “everything is a success. That’s it. It’s all successful. And there’s no room to think of failure.”

Produced by Arielle Berger.

This video was originally published October 2011, 2016.